Archive By Section - Viewpoint

America's economy is in the midst of a Great Stagnation that almost rivals the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the nation is fighting a costly and prolonged worldwide war against relentless Islamic terrorism.

In January, the Georgia Economic Developers Association hosted more than 50 state legislators at a luncheon to celebrate economic development accomplishments over the past 12 months. We also launched a year of celebration complete with a proclamation from Gov. Nathan Deal, as 2013 marks GEDA's 50th Anniversary.

The campaign in Georgia and in many states for adult and juvenile criminal justice reform has highlighted an alarming trend: Women represent a small portion of the prison population but their numbers are rising rapidly, with serious consequences for the children and communities they leave behind.

In announcing his wrongheaded proposal to increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour, President Obama spoke in lofty terms: "In the wealthiest nation on earth," he said in his State of the Union address last month, "no one who works full time should have to live in poverty."

Today's place kickers would consider those upright, square-toe-shoed, straight-on kickers of the past to be relics. Antiques. Like Durward Pennington, whose extra point in the 1959 Georgia-Auburn game enabled the Bulldogs to clinch the Southeastern Conference championship.

With about a week to go until the previously agreed-upon budget cuts called the sequester, some Republicans and virtually all Democrats in Washington are searching for a new agreement that will avoid those budget cuts and replace them with either fewer cuts, some tax increases, or nothing at all.

What did you get in the mail last Saturday? If you are like most people, you got a few advertising flyers, a few mass-mailed solicitations asking for donations, others telling you can save on car insurance. There may also have been a couple of bills, which - if you're like a growing number of Americans - you had already received online. For most people, this uninspiring haul is hardly the highlight of their day.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will soon become Citizen Clinton once more. She'll rake in huge speaking fees, juicy book deals, corporate board seats and dozens more honorary doctoral degrees. But none of that can ever wash away what happened at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama emphatically stated that medical marijuana use was an issue best left to the states. One of the first promises he made as the newly elected president was that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws." This was even reiterated formally in the so-called Ogden memo of 2009, in which the Department of Justice instructed U.S. attorneys that federal enforcement should apply only to medical marijuana operations that were not in clear compliance with state law.